Weekend Round-Up

Toast the summer season with a very fine Sauvignon Blanc (medium priced) from Marlborough, New Zealand,  called WhiteHaven. It's a  medium-bodied wine with a crisp, dry, clean finish. Enjoy the wine with salads, poultry, shellfish, Asian cuisine and Tuna Melt Appetizers.

Cook's Notes: Enjoy Tuna Melts as an appetizer or as a lighter fare. The taste of water packed tuna is much improved over using canned tuna. Recipe makes 12 appetizer size breads. I would not use parchment paper due to rack being so high. 

Ingredients:

• 1 package Albacore White Tuna (6.4 oz.) 
• 1/3 cup Miracle Whip
• 1 TB. dried parsley
• 1/2 tsp. Dijon mustard
• 1/2 cup diced celery
• 1/3 cup diced onions
• 1-1/2 TB. pickle relish, patted dry on a paper towel 
• 12 cocktail bread squares  
• 12 Swiss Cheese squares  

Directions:

• Mix all ingredients except cocktail rye bread squares and chill for a few hours.
• Line a rimmed baking sheet with a silicone liner or tin foil. 
• Preheat oven to 425 degrees and place rack close to broiler coils.
• Divide mixture evenly among bread squares.
• Cook 4 minutes-watch carefully.
• Remove from oven, add cheese and cook 1 minute longer or until cheese is melted. 

"The Other Einstein" by Marie Benedict is a compelling, intriguing and an ambitious novel to undertake. It spurred me on to do a bit of research after reading it.  

It is a fictional account of the life of an actual historical figure, Serbian Mileva “Mitza” Marić. She was Albert Einstein's first wife.  In 1896 she was the only female studying physics at Zürich university and one of the first females to study science at university level in all of Europe. She left home for more liberal Switzerland to achieve an education few women sought. Yet today her achievements are considerably less than her physicist husband, Albert Einstein.  Over the years there has been much speculation that Albert's famed Theory of Relativity submitted in 1905 was in fact, his wife's own work though her name was omitted from the final piece. This novel explores not only scientific and marital conflict, but the trials of being ground-breaking and intelligent women living in a conservative and bourgeois time-period.

If you are looking for a book full of scientific theories, this book is not for you. Since science and math are not my areas of expertise, I appreciated the fact that this book was not bogged down with too much science, but enough to understand the backdrop of the story. Benedict's novel concentrates more on relationships with choices and events that shaped and impacted them.  

There’s no doubt this novel will inspire strong emotions with readers over Mileva's choices, disappointments in maintaining a scientific partnership  with Albert, losing a child and enduring a submissive role in the marriage.